The Holy Spirit

The best friend that you have on this earth is the Holy Spirit. You say, well, I thought Jesus was my best friend. That’s exactly right. The best friend that you have on this earth is the Holy Spirit, who is Christ in the Christian. Now, we don’t worship three gods. We worship one God who has manifested Himself to us in three persons. We need to understand that the Holy Spirit is a person. Now, don’t call me with an impersonal pronoun. Don’t say, well, it preached tonight. He preached tonight. Of course, that remains to be seen, but he was standing up there behind the pulpit, and the Holy Spirit is a person. My desire in the message tonight is to help you to know the Holy Spirit, to love the Holy Spirit, to trust the Holy Sprit, to believe the Holy Spirit, who lives in your heart. I want you not to know about Him, but I want you to become personally acquainted with Him, and I want you to give Him the royal place that He deserves in your heart.

Now, look, if you will, in John 14, beginning in verse 15. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him—now, watch this—for he dwelleth with you,—who was dwelling with them right there? Jesus—and shall be in you.” Well, is it Jesus or the Holy Spirit who’s going to be in you? Well, the one who is dwelling with them was the one who would be in them. Who is that? Jesus. You see, the Holy Spirit is Christ in the Christian. Then go to verse 26, and look at this: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

Now, God the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit, another Comforter, to take the place of Jesus on this earth, and, as a matter of fact, He comes in Jesus’ name, according to verse 26, and the Holy Spirit is to be, therefore, to those disciples after Jesus ascended, and to be to us, as Jesus was to them when He was in the flesh here on this earth. Now, Jesus walked with them, He talked with them, He fellowshipped with them, He guided them, He instructed them, and He protected them; and now He says, I’m going away, but I’m sending another to take my place, to walk with you, to talk with you, to guide you, to instruct you, to befriend you, to be with you; and, when He says, I send you another Comforter, as you know or could know—perhaps know—that there are two different words for another in the Greek language, another may be another of a different kind. You’ve had a bicycle for transportation, and you get a horse—that’s another kind; but if you get another bicycle exactly like you had the first, you’d have another of the same kind. Now, Jesus uses the word for another here to mean another of the same kind. I am sending someone like me to take my place. And so, the Holy Spirit is to be to us in this dispensation what Jesus in the flesh was to the disciples when He was here, and He took Jesus’ place on earth. Now, we are to treat Him, therefore, as we would treat Jesus if Jesus were here in the flesh, and certainly I know how you would honor and reverence the Lord Jesus, and so don’t mistreat your best friend.

Rogers, Adrian. 2017. “The Holy Spirit: Your Best Friend.” In Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive, Jn 14:15–26. Signal Hill, CA: Rogers Family Trust.